110 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
of such implements from the terrace-gravels of Galley Hill, Kent.* 
Of course it is not denied that stone implements were used by man 
long before he invented the £ coup de poing,’ but I am unable to 
classify those earlier forms into any chronological sequence. Nor 
would I hazard a guess, in the present state of our knowledge, as 
to whether it is by centuries or millenniums we are to reckon the 
duration of that earlier stage of man’s career. 
Worked flints of the ‘coup de poing’ type are largely collected 
from the river-drift gravels of England and France, as well as 
elsewhere, and nearly all have the peculiarity of being made by 
chipping a nodule so as to convert it into a useful hand-tool — the 
flakes struck off being apparently of no use. When, however, it 
was discovered that some of the larger flakes could be utilised as 
sharp cutting tools, attention began to be directed to the art of 
producing them for teleological purposes. After some experience a 
skilled workman could produce a flake of any required size and 
shape. By subjecting these flakes to secondary chipping, imple- 
ments of great variety and efficiency were ultimately obtained. 
This was indeed an important step in flint industry, evidence of 
which is to be found in the fact that henceforth flakes were the 
useful products, while the residuary cores were rejected as waste. 
The worked flints found in the earlier inhabited caves of France 
and Belgium, such as Moustier and Spy, show that the flaking 
stage was already in full progress — thus proving that their habita- 
tion was later than the formation of the river-drift gravels. 
Towards the middle of the Palaeolithic civilisation ( Solutreen ) the 
flint industry had attained a state of great perfection, scarcely sur- 
passed in any subsequent period. 
That these cavemen did not confine their awakening intelligence 
to the working of flint objects is amply shown by the array of 
broken or lost harpoons, lance- and spear-heads, pins, needles, 
and nondescript articles made of bone or deer-horn which now 
appear in the debris of their inhabited sites. Some idea of their 
skill in this new industry may be gathered from an inspec- 
* These flint figures are from the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society (vol. li. ). The block was kindly lent to me by the Council for use in 
Prehistoric Problems , and it is here reprinted from the cliche then made for 
me. 
